old win 32.40 reloading tool

[adrians]

hi ,i just won a winchester 32.40 re-tool on fleabay and it is in great condition ,,but there is a little surfice rust on it ,the actual bullet mold is A+ ,.
could i use a little navel jelly on the tool to get the rust off ,or is that a little bit too strong for surface rust ?.
if yes any suggestions would be great.[smilie=w:
what size boolit could i expect/ dia wise ?,,,,,,,the seller said it drops 165grn(depending on alloy mix)

[Bent Ramrod]

If there is any blue left on it at all, I would advise against the naval jelly. In my experience it removes blue even quicker than the rust and leaves the surface a weird gray color that resists attempts to reblue. Slight rust can be removed by WD-40, Liquid Wrench or Kroil and the careful application of either 0000 steel wool or the edge of a piece of sheet copper. For light surface rust, I have simply boiled the mould in water and rubbed the rust with steel wool, as if I was making a pass with slow rust bluing, The loose rust comes off and the patination remaining on the metal surface turns black, blending into the rest of the finish.

Did you get a set with a reloading tool and a bullet mould? Winchester sold separate moulds with four or five reloading tool designs.

The .32-40 mould I have by Winchester casts at 0.319".

[adrians]

the mold tool is a one piece tool with 3 holes in the bottom handle and a hook ,asmall pin and a longer pin (maybe 1/8 dia ) in the top handle .
there is no bluing at all and the tool is marked Newhaven ,,conn ,pat 1884 so i,m assuming its pretty old it weights 1.75# and is approx 9" long .thanks for the quick response ..adrians[smilie=w:
it also says IDEAL mfc com, i guess its not wnichester but a win -win for me i like it ,,,i like it alot ,,and if it drops a .319 my 1888 commissioned rifle (slugged at .318 ) will be very happy .

[Bent Ramrod]

From your description it is an Ideal No. 6 tool with the standard 319247 cavity mould on the end. This design was Ideal's version of the standard 165-gr .32-40 lead bullet and is generally slightly shorter in the nose than the Winchester version, but it should be close enough in actual use. Ideal moulds had greater tolerances than Winchesters, generally a couple thousandths oversize. One of those holes in the handles (the one with the long punch on the other side) should size the bullet (after pan lubing) to a nominal 0.319". Push the bullet through nose first, if you must use the sizer hole, and hope for the best. In my experience, it is better to use the bullets as cast, even if they are a little large.

The rust will look a little uglier since the Ideal tools were all nickel plated, but the light oil and careful fine steel wool treatment should get the worst of it off. Too much will rub through the nickel plate. I generally just live with it; as long as the mould cavity is good, the single adjustable chamber hasn't been messed with and the holes in the handles haven't been modified, I figure anything else is "honest use."

If you're lucky, the decapping pin may still be in the chamber. If you're really lucky, the little powder scoop might still be with the tool. Generally, though, if the box is missing, the ancillaries will be gone as well.

Get some welder's gloves and put some cotton ones inside them to wear if you plan to cast any bullets with the tool. Those handles get too hot to touch when the mould starts running bullets.

[adrians]

thank you bent ramrod for your fine description ,the rust was easily removed using the method you mentioned and i did cast some boolits today and they came out pretty darn good but as you stated and as i quickly found out i needed a thick glove after about 20 casts but it was great fun (i ended up with 126 very shootable pills ).
i intend to use these in my 1888 commissioned 8mm it has the original bore it slugged at .318.5 so these .319--.320 pills will be great ,my only concern is they are not cast for gas checks so i.m going to try load to about 1200---1500fps using the 165grn pill /
maybe i,ll try 10or11 grns of unique and see if leading acures heck i don't know but it will be a riot finding out . if you have any load hints please feel free to share .thanks again and have a great night'
adrians